Divided We Stand: Comparing Media Coverage for the March for Life and Women’s March

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In 1949, the United States Federal Communications Commission issued the Fairness Doctrine. This policy was created to ensure that the media would cover controversial societal issues without bias. The doctrine lasted for 38 years before it was eventually eliminated in 1987.
On January 19, the 45th annual March for Life took place in Washington D.C. Just one day later, the second annual Women’s March took place in several cities around the United States. The March of Life consisted of over 650,000 people, including 140 Benet Academy students, faculty, and parents; the Women’s March consisted of over 10,000 marchers in Washington D.C.

Needless to say, both events garnered sizable turnouts. However, if one were to guess from comparing the media coverage from each event, he or she wouldn’t have known that.
Townhall reports that evening newscasts from the “Big 3”: CBS, ABC and NBC News, dedicated a combined two minutes and six seconds to coverage of the March for Life. On the other hand, the Big 3 covered the Women’s March for a total of six minutes and 43 seconds. CNN, a notably liberal network, only sent out two tweets in total about the March for Life on the official CNN Twitter account and the CNN Breaking News account. Both of those tweets were about President Donald Trump’s speech that he gave at the event via satellite. In comparison, they tweeted about the Women’s March 28 times. Their posts included pictures from the rallies, as well as quotes from guest speakers and overhead shots of the crowds. They did none of that for the March for Life.
Although liberal networks are at fault, their conservative counterparts are also to blame for this lack of balanced reporting. Fox News, a traditionally conservative network, tweeted about the March for Life on their official Twitter account eight times, as opposed to five tweets about the Women’s March. Two of their five tweets devoted to the Women’s March were either in favor of President Trump, a Republican, or against liberals. Breitbart published 15 articles about this year’s March for Life, ranging from quotes from the event to news reports about the event itself. They also published 12 articles about the Women’s March, but five of them were decidedly against the event or its protesters.
It’s easy for one to pick out examples of famous news networks not covering their protest of choice and become upset about it. However, both sides are guilty of showing bias. This adamant mentality towards issues in our country has caused a divide that is greater than anything that has taken place in the 21st century.